The laying hen house breeding environment is composed of many factors, the most important being the air environment represented by temperature, humidity, airflow, air pressure, etc. Entering the cold winter, temperature is an important air environment for farmers to pay attention to.
While paying attention to laying hen house temperature, you should also pay attention to several other air environment indicators such as humidity, airflow and air pressure. If the humidity is not normal, the chickens are also prone to problems.
In the cold winter, air humidity often occurs in two situations: first, the low temperature and high humidity of the laying hen house, or the temperature is suitable and high humidity. Second, the temperature of the brooding house should be suitable and low humidity.
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What is humidity
The near-Earth air layer contains water vapor in any state, which comes from the evaporation of water surfaces such as oceans, rivers and lakes, plants, and moist soil. The physical quantity that measures the degree of air humidity is called “air humidity”, or air humidity for short, which indicates the amount of water vapor in the air.
In chicken production, the most commonly used is relative humidity. Relative humidity refers to the ratio of the actual water vapor content in the air to the saturated water vapor amount at the same temperature, expressed as a percentage, that is, relative humidity (%) = (actual water vapor content/saturated water vapor amount) x100.
The influence of humidity level on chickens
The relative humidity suitable for chicken growth is generally 50%-70%. In order to correctly analyze and grasp the influence of humidity on chickens, it can be considered that more than 70% is high humidity, more than 90% is high humidity; less than 50% is low humidity, and less than 30% is too low humidity.
1.Low temperature + high humidity or too high humidity, the heat dissipation of the chicken is greatly increased
The adverse effects of low temperature on chickens are aggravated. The laying hen body is easy to dissipate heat. The humid air makes the chicken feathers wet, the thermal insulation performance decreases. The chicken body feels colder, which aggravates the cold stress. In order to maintain body temperature, the daily feed consumption of chickens will increase. The feed-to-egg ratio will increase, the feed conversion rate will be significantly reduced, and the breeding cost will be greatly increased.
If serious, the health status of the flock is destroyed, causing colibacillosis and digestive tract diseases.
2.Low temperature + low humidity or too low humidity
It is beneficial for chickens to reduce heat dissipation to maintain normal body temperature, which can slow down the adverse effects of low temperature on chickens.
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3.The temperature is suitable, but the humidity is too high, which is more conducive to the spread of infectious diseases
Once the disease occurs, the disease is also severe and the mortality rate is higher. Many experiments have shown that high humidity can promote the development of pathogenic fungi, bacteria and parasites. For example, in the rainy season in the south, the feed and bedding are prone to mold when the humidity is too high, causing the outbreak of aspergillosis in the chicks; too high humidity is also conducive to the occurrence and spread of coccidiosis.
drinking system
4.The temperature is suitable and the humidity is too low, which will affect the health of the chickens
For example, when the relative humidity is below 40%, the skin of the chicken will be dry and cracked, and the moisture of the respiratory mucosa will decrease, thereby weakening the defense ability of the skin and respiratory mucosa against microorganisms. At this time, the dust, especially the bacteria-carrying dust, is greatly increased due to the dry air, so the incidence of respiratory tract increases;
Especially in laying hen house brooding and bred flocks, it is very easy to have respiratory diseases that cannot be cured for a long time, resulting in a decline in the IB immune protection rate, and after the start of laying, the egg production does not reach the peak, or the egg quality is poor.
In addition, if the humidity is too low, the feathers of the chickens will not grow well, and the phenomenon of pecking is easy to occur.
